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Job 39:1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
Job 39:2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
Job 39:3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
Job 39:4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.
Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
Job 39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
Job 39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
Job 39:8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.
Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
Job 39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

Introduction

In our last study God asked Job who puts wisdom in the inward parts or gives understanding to the heart. The answer obviously is God, and God alone can impart wisdom to us. Then God asked Job who can number the clouds in wisdom or stay the waters of those clouds causing drought and famine. Again the only obvious answer is that God alone can do those things.
God wants us to know and acknowledge the Truth of His sovereign power over all of His creatures. To that end He then begins asking Job if he, Job, can hunt for and fill the appetite of the young lions, or provide the food for the raven and its young?
These questions serve the same purpose of demonstrating that God is sovereign, even over the food that nourishes the lions and the ravens. The lion and the raven typify the works of the adversary as well as the works of our Creator:

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Rev 5:5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.
Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:
Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one [ the fowls of verse 4], and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
1Ki 17:4 And it shall be, that thou shalt drink of the brook; and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.
1Ki 17:5 So he went and did according unto the word of the LORD: for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan.
1Ki 17:6 And the ravens brought him bread and flesh in the morning, and bread and flesh in the evening; and he drank of the brook.

King David answers this question for us:

Psa 147:9 He [ the Lord] giveth to the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry.

The spiritual message for us is that God makes the good and the evil, and is sovereign over both for the purpose of working His own good will in us, His creation.

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Isa 45:5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Isa 45:6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
Isa 45:7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

The lesson for us in this experience of Job is that Job typifies each of us, and his experience demonstrates for us that our trials are really nothing less than “the goodness, and the wonderful works of God”, which bring us all to repentance:

Psa 107:25 For he [ God] commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits’ end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.
Psa 107:31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men.

This is the very purpose for God’s “goodness”, but His ways are not our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts:

Rom 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?
Isa 55:8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
Isa 55:9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

With this thought in mind, God continues to demonstrate that His time is not our time, and that we are incapable of setting the timing of the bringing forth of any of His creatures:

Job 39:1 Knowest thou the time when the wild goats of the rock bring forth? or canst thou mark when the hinds do calve?
Job 39:2 Canst thou number the months that they fulfil? or knowest thou the time when they bring forth?
Job 39:3 They bow themselves, they bring forth their young ones, they cast out their sorrows.
Job 39:4 Their young ones are in good liking, they grow up with corn; they go forth, and return not unto them.

The timing and the duration of Job’s and our trials are certainly not according to our timing. If we had our way, there would be no trials and there would be no tribulations to endure. But God has seen fit to give all men a time of travail, just as he does with the wild goats of the rock and the wild deer of the forest. It is God who has set the time of travail for all life.
Wild goats live on steep inaccessible rocks, and yet God knows the every move of both the wild goats and the deer of the forest because it is He who has given them their routines of life, just as He has given all men the same routine of life:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

The details of each life may and do vary, but the process of judgment is the same for every man or woman who has or ever will draw breath.

Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?
Job 39:6 Whose house I have made the wilderness, and the barren land his dwellings.
Job 39:7 He scorneth the multitude of the city, neither regardeth he the crying of the driver.
Job 39:8 The range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searcheth after every green thing.

Of course these outward words apply to the wild burros of this earth, as well as the wild horses and the mountain sheep, which all live wild and free of the constraints which are common to all domesticated animals. But wild animals cannot read or hear the words of the Lord. That statement is just as true for the spiritual wild ass as it is of a physical wild ass. On the other hand, these words are full of instruction for those who are given to look behind them, with eyes that see and ears that hear, these words.
We all begin our lives free of the restraints of those who have been conquered and subdued by our Lord’s chastening grace. Christ has informed us that mankind must live by every word which proceeds out of the mouth of God, and these words in Job, as well as the words of the book of Genesis, are for the instruction of all men “every man in his own order” as he is given eyes that see and ears that hear what the spirit is saying to us all. The fact that our rejected old man, called a “wild beast” must precede our “new man” who yields his members to the direction of the spirit of God, is demonstrated by the fact that the type of our old man is always brought forth first. This principle is first demonstrated by “the first man Adam”, Adam’s first son, Cain, and Abraham’s first son, Ishmael. There are many other examples of this principle in scripture, but let’s stop here and notice what the Lord tells us about our rejected first man Adam as he is typified in Abraham’s first son who was born of the bondwoman, Hagar.
This is what God thinks of us while we are still in this stage of our process of judgment, which is the one event which comes “alike to all”:

[ H6501 – pereh, wild ass] man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren.

What is so instructive is to discover that the word translated ‘wild’ in this 12th verse of Gen 16 is the exact same Hebrew word which is translated as “wild ass” in Job 39:5. Let’s read that verse again:

Job 39:5 Who hath sent out the wild ass [ H6501 – pereh, wild ass] free? or who hath loosed the bands of the wild ass?

What God is telling Job and us is that our rebellion itself against “the crying of the driver” is His own work in our lives to show us that He Himself made us all first to be “marred in the hand of the Potter”, which Potter He is, and He does this all “after the counsel of His own will, [ and for our own] good” (Rom 8:28 and Eph 1:11).

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it.
Jer 18:4 And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.
Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The message of God’s Word is that God has given mankind a life of “an experience of evil”. He has done this for the purpose of destroying that “experience of evil” just as the seed of any plant is destroyed when it is buried in the ground in death. It is through that dying, and through the destruction of that old seed, that new life is brought forth in abundance.
But God has also created a realm of evil spirits to convince us that this “vessel of clay’ is not marred at all, but is the epitome of God’s creation, and that dying to the desires of this “vessel of clay” and denying the desires of our flesh, is neither good nor necessary. God Himself sends this evil spirit to try us and to show us how easily we can be deceived and thereby be made to worship our own needs and desires of our flesh. Job himself was led by this evil spirit to reprove, contend with, and condemn his own God. This spirit could not touch Job until this spirit was sent to do so.

Job 1:8 And the LORD said unto Satan, Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?
Job 1:9 Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, Doth Job fear God for nought?
Job 1:10 Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side? thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.
Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD.
Job 40:1 Moreover the LORD answered Job, and said,
Job 40:2 Shall he that contendeth with the Almighty instruct him? he that reproveth God, let him answer it.
Job 40:3 Then Job answered the LORD, and said,
Job 40:4 Behold, I am vile; what shall I answer thee? I will lay mine hand upon my mouth.
Job 40:5 Once have I spoken; but I will not answer: yea, twice; but I will proceed no further.
Job 40:6 Then answered the LORD unto Job out of the whirlwind, and said,
Job 40:7 Gird up thy loins now like a man: I will demand of thee, and declare thou unto me.
Job 40:8 Wilt thou also disannul my judgment? wilt thou condemn me, that thou mayest be righteous?

So Satan, and all the evil Satan does, is really nothing more than the sword of our Lord, and the reality of it all is that everything in heaven and in earth is either bound or loosed according to the Word of God.
Here is this principle as it is revealed to us by King David:

Psa 17:13 Arise, O LORD, disappoint him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, which is thy sword:
Psa 17:14 From men which are thy hand, O LORD, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure: they are full of children, and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.

Being the “seed of the serpent” has nothing at all to do with Satan having a physical sexual relationship with Eve. It does however, have everything to do with Eve committing spiritual adultery and spiritual fornication with the realm of the spirit which God has given to Satan. That is the meaning of being the seed of the serpent, and that is a condition which is common to all men by virtue of being placed into a physical, naked vessel of clay which is by God’s own design “enmity against God:

Gen 3:15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Enmity against “the seed of the woman” is inherent to all flesh and is the same as being filled with hatred toward God and His ways:

Rom 8:7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

The name ‘Eve’ means “the mother of all living”:

Gen 3:20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

What this tells us is that Eve is the mother of both “the seed of… the serpent” as well as “the seed of… the woman”. What that means is that our being the seed of the serpent must by God’s design, precede our becoming the seed of the woman. There is no mention of Eve or of a serpent speaking with Eve when Christ makes this statement to those whose hearts and minds were, by nature and by His own design, enmity against Him and His words:

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

Judas was led of this same spirit to betray our Lord. But notice that just as in the story of Job, Satan was given by God to do this evil deed and to influence and lead Judas to betray our Lord:

Joh 13:27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

So while we are all first, by God’s design, the seed of the serpent, he is not yet given the dominion he will later be granted within us. We are all just as carnal as Job and the disciples of our Lord, but Satan is hedged out of our lives until the time appointed for all of us to deny our Lord and succumb to the power of the wicked one over us for a season. Neither Job nor the disciples of Christ were converted, and yet we are told that Job “feared God and hated evil” (Job 1:1), and we are told that Christ’s disciples cast out demons and healed the sick.
So this principle of having a relationship with God while being “yet carnal” is a principle by which we all live, and it is most clearly stated in the first and third chapters of 1 Corinthians:

1Co 1:1 Paul, called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother,
1Co 1:2 Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours:
1Co 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:
1Co 1:7 So that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ:

As was the case with all the apostles after three and a half years of following our Lord, all of these words are true of us, and at the same time these words are also true:

1Co 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4 For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

The answer to this question is, yes, we do have a relationship with Christ, just as did Adam and Eve, and at the same time we “are yet carnal” and our hearts and minds are yet “enmity against God”. Like Job and like Judas, Satan can still be sent to show us just how carnal we still are. The message of the scripture, here in this story of Job, in the story of Adam and Eve, and the story of Christ and Judas, and in the account of the church at Corinth, indeed throughout scripture, is that our flesh is not all there is to the struggle with which we must all contend. All who think that our flesh is all there is to our struggles have greatly underestimated the power of the enemy with whom they are contending. Job’s flesh was right there with him before God sent Satan to try Job. Judas’s flesh was right there with him before Christ gave Judas the sop, and before Satan entered into him. In the same manner you and I are not contending only with mere sinful flesh and blood, but we are also wrestling with powers and principalities in the heavens of our own hearts and minds. So also we are plainly admonished:

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

The “high places” where this struggle takes place is the Greek word epouranios and is the heavens of our hearts and minds.

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All of this is the message of these next four verses of our study today:

Job 39:9 Will the unicorn be willing to serve thee, or abide by thy crib?
Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?
Job 39:11 Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him?
Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

For what it is worth, Strong’s defines the Hebrew word for ‘unicorn’ as a wild bull.

H7214 re’e m re’e ym re ym re m reh- ame’, reh- ame’, rame, rame From H7213; a wild bull (from its conspicuousness): – unicorn.

‘Reem’, H7214, we are told, comes from

H7213 ra’am raw- am’ A primitive root; to rise: – be lifted up.

Rising up against God is the very definition of the Adversary. God created the Adversary to do what he does:

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

Here are a couple of other verses which give the sense that this beast is powerful beyond our ability to subdue or conquer. God compares the strength of His Israel to the power a unicorn:

Num 23:21 He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them.
Num 23:22 God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of an unicorn.
Psa 92:9 For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
Psa 92:10 But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.

But as with every Word of God, this word also has a negative application, and here in these verses of Job 39 the strength of the unicorn is compared to the strength of the adversary over our flesh, and we are asked “Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee? Wilt thou trust him, because his strength is great? or wilt thou leave thy labour to him? Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?”
The answer is that none of us at first can “bind the unicorn with his band” to do our work. The opposite is true; we are all first, by virtue of serving ourselves, guilty of worshiping the great red dragon, who is just another type of the adversary.

Rev 13:4 And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying, Who is like unto the beast? who is able to make war with him?

“Who can make war with the beast” is the same question God is asking Job:

Job 39:10 Canst thou bind the unicorn with his band in the furrow? or will he harrow the valleys after thee?

The point God is making is that we are no match of ourselves for the power of the great red dragon. Here is what we are told the serpent is given as his food:

Gen 3:14 And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

When we understand that we are that dust, then we know that when we go up against the adversary on our own, He will always have us for his lunch:

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

The positive powers of the heavens, like the angel Michael, realize the power given to the adversary and treat him with proper regard:

Jdg 1:9 Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

We too, are admonished never to underestimate the power of our adversary.

1Pe 5:8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Here is what happens when we under estimate our adversary:

Act 19:13 Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Act 19:14 And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so.
Act 19:15 And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?
Act 19:16 And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.
Act 19:17 And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified.

When we think that our flesh is all we are contending with, we too, will be stripped naked and made to be ashamed of our lack of regard for the adversary we have been given. Our only strength against him is “The Lord rebuke thee”. But the name of our Lord is all that is needed to bind him and all in chains, his ropes, and “his bands”. We must never “believe him or his lies to “bring home our seed or gather it into our barn”.

Job 39:12 Wilt thou believe him, that he will bring home thy seed, and gather it into thy barn?

But that is exactly what we first do by actually believing the lies of Babylon, which are really nothing more than the lies and doctrines of the devil, who is “the father of lies”:

Joh 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
2Co 11:13 For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.
2Co 11:15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.
2Th 2:10 And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
2Th 2:11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

When we “believe a lie” we are placing the doctrines of men, which are the lies of the adversary, and the fear of men above the doctrine of God and above our fear of God.

Joh 9:22 These words spake his parents, because they feared the Jews: for the Jews had agreed already, that if any man did confess that he was Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue.
Luk 12:5 But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.
1Ti 4:1 Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;

It all sounds so cataclysmic to the old earthy man, but his destruction is also his salvation, and it is all the “wonderful works of God to the children of men”:

Psa 107:4 They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way; they found no city to dwell in.
Psa 107:5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Psa 107:6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
Psa 107:8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men!
Psa 107:9 For he satisfieth the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with goodness.

Next week, Lord willing, we will continue ‘reasoning with the Lord over these verses:

Job 39:13 Gavest thou the goodly wings unto the peacocks? or wings and feathers unto the ostrich?
Job 39:14 Which leaveth her eggs in the earth, and warmeth them in dust,
Job 39:15 And forgetteth that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may break them.
Job 39:16 She is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers: her labour is in vain without fear;
Job 39:17 Because God hath deprived her of wisdom, neither hath he imparted to her understanding.
Job 39:18 What time she lifteth up herself on high, she scorneth the horse and his rider.
Job 39:19 Hast thou given the horse strength? hast thou clothed his neck with thunder?
Job 39:20 Canst thou make him afraid as a grasshopper? the glory of his nostrils is terrible.
Job 39:21 He paweth in the valley, and rejoiceth in his strength: he goeth on to meet the armed men.
Job 39:22 He mocketh at fear, and is not affrighted; neither turneth he back from the sword.
Job 39:23 The quiver rattleth against him, the glittering spear and the shield.
Job 39:24 He swalloweth the ground with fierceness and rage: neither believeth he that it is the sound of the trumpet.
Job 39:25 He saith among the trumpets, Ha, ha; and he smelleth the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains, and the shouting.
Job 39:26 Doth the hawk fly by thy wisdom, and stretch her wings toward the south?
Job 39:27 Doth the eagle mount up at thy command, and make her nest on high?
Job 39:28 She dwelleth and abideth on the rock, upon the crag of the rock, and the strong place.
Job 39:29 From thence she seeketh the prey, and her eyes behold afar off.
Job 39:30 Her young ones also suck up blood: and where the slain are, there is she.